It's Only a Small Crime
by The Queen of Double Standards
Summary: Ring fell out of love with her girlfriend, Gumi, but she didn't break up with her. When Gumi's best friend, Rin, started making advances, Ring did nothing to stop her. They'd all three committed crimes, but whose was the worst? Shoujo-ai oneshot


**Author's Note: For Ten Faced Matryoshka**

**It's Only a Small Crime**

_Leave me out with the waste  
__This is not what I do  
__It's the wrong kind of place to be thinking of you  
__It's the wrong time for somebody new  
__It's a small crime, and I've got no excuse  
_-Nine Crimes by Damien Rice

A washed-out girl, her forehead pressed against the cool bar as long strands of sky-coloured hair wrapped themselves around her, caressing her in what was almost a hug, as though she were trying to comfort herself through such a manner. A glass of scotch, heated to the point of no return in her sweaty palm as she continued to hold her grip on it so long after she'd given up trying to drink the pain away. A painful thought, refusing to slip back into the dens of memories and fighting instead to be her only focus, her primary focus, as she sat at that bar.

A laugh rang through her ears, an adorable giggle that sounded of the one she'd once loved. What was wrong with her? _Once_ loved? The one with that giggle was her girlfriend, still was. Goddamn it.

The cheers coming from the surrounding men were merciless, shattering her eardrums as she listening to the repeated use of the word "chug". She didn't want to be here, not anymore. It had been fun at first, when her girlfriend had still been here and she could forget just for a little that she no longer loved that girl, but, now that she'd left, Ring was alone. Where had she gone to, Ring wondered, to have left her own home? Their respective older brothers had planned this together, and this was her girlfriend's house, not her own.

"Hey, you alright?"

Ring slowly lifted her head toward the one who'd spoken, drawn in by that sweet voice. She looked straight into gorgeous blue eyes and felt her heart skip a beat. That made it worse. So, when the girl reached her hand out, Ring batted it violently away and glared viciously at her. She had no reason to do so, and both she and the girl knew it. The blue-haired girl stayed uncompromising, though, because she could already feel her face flushing past the alcohol and her pulse racing ahead of itself. The stranger girl withdrew with contemplative, hesitant smirk. Her feelings on this matter seemed to be fighting with each other in her eyes, so neither spoke for a moment as their own inner battles raged on. Around them, the world continued racing, and Ring was only conscious of the fact that she was unconscious to it.

Ring didn't know how long it took, but she finally looked away, submitting to her rival. The girl, a younger blonde girl, sat next to her then, but Ring refused to look at her. When Ring felt the slightest touch of the other girl's fingers touching the hand that held the scotch, she pulled back at the painful thrill of electricity. Her hand tingled in aching longing as she stared at the lines in the wooden bar, hearing the other girl take the scotch and take a swig of the putrid stuff herself. Ring herself was a minor, but certainly it was far worse to have one as young as the blonde drinking. Still, she refused to give in again this time by intervening and listened instead to the blonde girl, painfully aware of her presence.

Eventually, the other girl's voice sounded, wondering, "You're Gumi's girlfriend, right?"

Ring remained silent. Gumi was her girlfriend, yes. But she didn't _feel_ like they were a couple. Gumi still did, and Gumi loved her so much. Ring felt none of it, at least not anymore. She had once. Ring gazed deeper into the lines of the wood, her eyes blurring over. How could she have loved Gumi so deeply once, and why didn't she love her now? Why did Gumi still love her?

A shock ran through Ring's system as she felt soft lips against her own, searing all thoughts of Gumi from her mind for only the briefest moments before she thought of her girlfriend's smile, the sweet eyes with which Gumi always looked at her. When Ring blinked into the present moment, the eyes that were definitely not Gumi's were the ones that were barely an inch from her own. Just as Ring's eyes were open, so were the blonde's, and the younger girl stared at the elder for a moment before pulling her lips and the tingle of electricity back once more. Ring stared at that blonde girl, her vision flashing between the blonde girl and Gumi. Her girlfriend didn't send this thrill through her, but this was too wrong. Ring and the blonde girl stared at each other. Ring wondered what her own eyes said, because the other girl's said nothing at all.

"Rin! You came!"

Ring's eyes stayed locked on the blonde even as the other girl looked away, her attention caught by the name Ring assumed to be hers. Ring didn't even bother looking up to the voice she knew was Gumi's. Her attention was far too caught on the smirk that drew up the corner of Rin's mouth, each and every movement as her mouth formed words meant for Gumi. "I told you I would, didn't I? What, you don't believe me anymore now that you've got a girlfriend and I'm alone?"

Gumi laughed, but Ring wasn't looking at her to see her eyes gleaming with mirth when she replied. "That's got nothing to do with anything, Rin. Ring's my first girlfriend, unlike you, miss 'new girlfriend every time we meet'."

Ring felt a burning resentment surfacing, making her feel sick. She'd once been happy to hear Gumi referring to her as her girlfriend, but now those possessive shackles were tightening around her neck, not so hard so that she couldn't breath but tight enough to tell here that she belonged to someone else, and only one person held the key to those shackles. If she wanted the key, she'd have to kill its owner.

Rin's eyes came to Ring now, a glimmer of suggestion in her gaze as she said, "Yep, and she's definitely a keeper, Gumi."

Ring didn't know if Gumi had looked to her or not, but her focus seemed to still be elsewhere as she smacked Rin's arm and added, "Hey, why are you inside? You told me to go meet you at the parking lot! I've been looking everywhere for you!"

Rin just shrugged and said, "I got bored, so I went looking and found the place myself." Then, with a grin to Ring, she added, "And I met your girlfriend."

_I could be your girlfriend instead of hers,_ was all Ring though, the tight feel of the shackles burning her guilty body and soul.

. . .

"Bye," Ring mumbled to her older brother, Kaito, as he waved farewell and tore down the road. She might've skipped her date with Gumi if Gakupo and Kaito weren't such good friends that their younger sister's date was information shared between them both. Kaito had insisted on dropping her off, irritatingly enough, so she'd had no choice but to come. What good reason could she give for not meeting up with her girlfriend for their date?

_I don't love her anymore._

How could she ever say that?

"Yo."

Ring looked toward the voice, alarmed when she saw Rin standing before her. Short jean shorts showing off her smooth, slim legs, hair styled to look wild and untamed, a flimsy white tank top that showed off her midriff and let the black and red of her bra shine through, dark makeup styled to make her look much older than her age. Ring's eyes soaked them all up in a mere moment, and a wave of sickness washed over her when she remembered that this wasn't her girlfriend.

"What are you doing here?" Ring wondered, hovering somewhere between aggression and uncertainty.

Rin sunk into one hip and quirked one corner of her mouth into a smirk. "Nice to see you, too." Ring stared evenly at Rin until the younger girl laughed and offered, "Gumi's home sick, so she sent me in her place. Happy now?"

Ring hated how much relief, how much joy she felt when Rin said that. Ring didn't want to go on a date with Gumi. There was so much she couldn't say, and nothing she wanted to say. Rin was a different case, however; Ring wanted to know everything there was to know about Rin, and she wanted Rin to want to know everything about her. But Rin wasn't her girlfriend. Gumi was.

Rin was watching Ring's wavering emotions with that same cocky smirk, and eventually she said, "C'mon, it was Gumi's idea. Just humour her." Her eyes glimmering with sadism, she added, "You _do_ love her, don't you?" Ring flinched, and Rin let out a small laugh before loping to Ring's side and reaching for her hand. Ring knew the electricity that would flash through her veins the moment their skin touched, so she drew swiftly drew her hand back. Rin was faster, though, and struck her hand out to snap it around Ring's. Ring couldn't pull away once Rin had caught her; the powerful current of electricity swam between their veins with no way to break the circuit. "Do it for Gumi."

_Do me for Gumi._

Ring couldn't beak away, though she knew she should. No, she knew she could. She didn't want to. Staring into those mesmerizing blue eyes of Rin's, she allowed herself to be pulled forward, feeling that harsh stab of guilt plowing deeper and deeper into her. Her thoughts were elsewhere as Rin pulled her from ride to ride, and she didn't speak another word despite Rin's constant teasing babble. She wanted to be with Rin, but she was bound to Gumi. Gumi was her girlfriend. Rin wasn't. This was Ring and Gumi's date, so why was she here with Rin? It was wrong, the worst place to see the girl. Or maybe it had been worse when Rin had kissed her within Gumi's house.

Ring's eyes lingered on Rin's lips, painted a bright red with harsh lipstick, as the younger girl continued talking. Her mind thought awful things, and she craved another taste of Rin. Gumi was Ring's girlfriend. Ring didn't love Gumi. Did she love Rin? Even if she did, it was still a crime. As Rin led her onto the Ferris wheel, her mind raged on. It was a crime, wasn't it, to love Rin when Gumi was still in love with Ring? Gumi had done nothing to deserve it. She didn't deserve this.

And, yet, before Ring knew it, she lost control of herself. She shut Rin up by pressing their mouths together. She closed her eyes this time, but she could feel Rin's smirk as they kissed. Once they were forced to exit the ride, Rin pulled Ring to a bench and looped her arms around Ring's neck, her lips trailing up from Ring's neckline to eventually find her lips once more. Ring's guilt wasn't gone, but she wanted Rin too much to let that take control of her. She had no proper excuse to be doing this, to be kissing a girl who wasn't her girlfriend, on a date that was meant to be Ring's and Gumi's, but she wanted Rin too much.

So much that she could hardly bear to pull away when she heard Gumi's voice shouting at them. Rin pulled back, though, and smirked at Gumi. Ring's eyes fell to Gumi's shoes, unable to look at the tears she heard in Gumi's voice. "I was waiting for you, Ring!" coupled with "You're horrible! Why would you do this?" and other such phrases as Rin and Ring sat in silence. Then, finally, Gumi ran off, and Ring lifted her gaze up to Rin, feeling the girl pull away. Rin stood and stretched her arms over her head, a satisfied grin on her face. Ring wanted to judge her for that look, but she knew she was guilty of the same crime.

"Well, thanks, Ring," Rin finally said, casting Ring a sidelong glance as she snatched her purse up from the bench. "I'll see you around, I suppose."

Ring froze, not understanding. Their crime had been found out, but did that mean they shouldn't continue? Ring wanted to continue. Rin seemed to read her gaze and told her, "Gumi isn't going to forgive you for this, Ring, but she'll forgive me. I'm her best friend, after all. I'm the one she should be in love with." Rin turned on her heels then and simply stated, "I'm going to go comfort her and apologize. You can try to do the same, to win her back, but it won't do much. It's not like you love her anymore, anyway, right? Now you don't have to deal with dumping her."

Then, as Rin began walking away, Ring spoke the first words she had since their date had begun. "So you were just using me?"

Rin looked back, her smirk replaced by a serious expression as she told Ring, "You should have broken up with her in the first place, Ring. You used Gumi. You got what you deserved. So, yes, I used you, because I won't forgive anyone who hurts Gumi in any way." She began walking once more, and, on the whisper of the breeze, her final words were carried back. "It's not like she'll ever love me, anyway."

Ring watched Rin's departing back. She was too numb, too in shock, to absorb any of it, so she didn't cry until later, nor did she realize that she'd lost both Gumi and Rin in one brief moment. Instead, she sat there until closing, and, rather than face the shame of calling her brother to pick her up, she walked the hour it took to get home. There was no excuse for her crime, but there was no excuse for Rin's, either.

She found out later from Kaito, who heard from Gakupo, that Rin and Gumi were now dating, that Gumi had apparently always loved Rin but didn't know Rin loved her in return. Gumi had been dating Ring to try to get over Rin, but it had been a fruitless endeavor. This was later reaffirmed in an apologetic email from the greenette, explaining that she hated how she'd led Ring on, but that she was only dating Ring in order to try to get over Rin. Her mind had always been on Rin, and, despite knowing that she'd never love Ring, she had pretended she had. Ring had loved Gumi at one point, and she'd thought Gumi felt the same. She hadn't, though, it appeared. She'd always loved Rin. Gumi's crime, Ring thought, might be worse than Rin's or Ring's.

**Author's Note: I have a poll up for Mayu-pairings for Halloween oneshots so please vote if you'd be interested in reading any of those! Thank you for reading and please review if you have the chance!**


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